


Breakaway

by Asphodelia



Series: Runaways [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Puppy Love, Running Away, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 10:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9177037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asphodelia/pseuds/Asphodelia
Summary: Armitage was being held captive by a ridiculous boy who wanted them to run off and have adventures together.It was awful.And he certainly wasn't attracted to the ridiculous boy, if that's what you're thinking. That would be, well, ridiculous.-Ben and Armitage try to get their first job as 'outlaws'.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Last time: Ben Solo (16) stole a ship and ran away from Luke's jedi school. The ship belonged to a small group of First Order officers. Armitage Hux (16), still a cadet, was on the ship. Ben realized that he couldn't let Armitage go back and tell the Order about him, so instead he claimed to be 'rescuing' and 'debrainwashing' him.

About a week ago Armitage had found himself floating in unfamiliar space, staring down a grinning boy who claimed to be rescuing him. 

He wasn’t. Armitage was leaps and bounds ahead of the other students at Arkanis Academy and already spending every second of his free time working on concepts and designs for technology that would one day help bring order to the galaxy. His father had finally recognized his worth and acknowledged him publicly as his son. He was being taught about the Stormtrooper program as if it were a given that he would be running it someday. He had a bright future with the First Order, but that future would not be handed to him. He was in constant completion for it, and every day he spent with Ben was a chance for someone else to claim it for their own. 

Ben was not rescuing him, he was compromising his potential greatness.

Also, he seemed to be doing it for absolutely no reason. They hadn’t even moved the ship since that first day.

After declaring Armitage ‘rescued’ Ben had excitedly explained that he was running away from his force training to be an outlaw. He had not explained what exactly he meant by ‘outlaw’, but he had claimed it would involve fun and adventure. It was chaotic, and worse; these plans weren’t only for himself. Armitage was expected to “get over” his loyalty to the First Order and participate in these half-formed plans to commit non-specific mischief. 

He had no intention of doing so and had said as much, but then Ben had actually pouted at him. Armitage had not yielded an inch. Then, the pouting had turned to frustration and Ben had stomped around like he was looking for something to break. 

He clearly had no control over himself or his emotions, and he seemed to want Armitage to join him in his ridiculous endeavors very badly. Armitage realized that it would be easier to escape if he played along for a bit. Ben would be blinded by his obvious attraction to Armitage combined with how badly he wanted it to be true. He would not watch Armitage as closely as he should once they landed on a planet and he would be able to sneak away and contact the Order. 

With an affected sigh, Armitage had pretended to relent. 

“I suppose I can give the outlaw thing a chance if it will stop you from throwing an actual tantrum.”

Ben’s mood had reversed in under a second. He had looked so elated that Armitage thought he might kiss him.

He didn’t. Which was a huge relief. That was what he felt when Ben had practically run to him, squeezed his hands, and leaned in close to his face only to suddenly let go and start asking him what kinds of food they had on the ship; relief. 

He had never been kissed before, after all, and it wouldn’t do for his first kiss to be with a long-haired bad boy type who stole ships and aspired to be some kind of rogue. 

Armitage had pushed aside his immense relief in favor of showing Ben around the small ship – a common room where there was food (military rations), a room with four bunks in which Armitage had been studying while Ben was stealing the ship, and an empty cargo hold. Ben had seemed to fall in love with the ship during the tour and had looked disappointed when he asked what its name was and was told ‘Transport 4’. 

“Well, I’m sure we’ll come up with something cooler.”

“You implied you were trying to keep a low profile. Why would you want to name her ‘something cooler’?”

“Well, yeah, Ben Solo wants to keep a low profile, but Ben and Armitage the unstoppable outlaws need to start building a reputation. You can’t do that as the crew of ‘Transport 4’. My dad is basically a legend, and I’m sure at least part of that is the cool ship name.”

“The Millennium Falcon?” The truth about Ben’s identity hit Armitage like a wave of ice water. A force-sensitive individual with the first name as Senator Organa’s son and the same surname as her fabled paramour, the smuggler Han Solo. Ben was a [i]Skywalker[/I]; the son of The Enemy. 

“Exactly. Even oppressed imperial kids know about the Falcon!” Ben continued for a moment before realizing his slip. He tried to speak twice unsuccessfully before shrugging and saying sheepishly: “Well, it’s a good thing for me you’re not going back to the First Order, huh?” 

Since that first day, Armitage had spent most of his time studying. Ben had spent his days in the cockpit getting to know his new ship, or on the bunk opposite Armitage’s teasing him for studying (“Oh Maker, is that a biography on Emperor Palpatine?” “Ok, it’s probably going to be handy that you know about propulsion systems, but this much math just can’t be healthy.” “Uhg, stop being lame and hang out with me!”). 

What Ben had not done since that first day was move the ship, mention a destination, or give any indication that he had any sort of plan of action besides loitering out in the middle of nowhere until they ran out of food and fuel. Armitage needed to get to a planet if he was going to have any hope of escaping, and by this point he had read his Palpatine biography twice. 

He was getting bored.

-

 

“Where are we going?”

 

“Huh?”

 

Ben was in the pilot’s seat, spinning around absently, when a very cross-looking Armitage appeared in the doorway of the cockpit. It was the first time he had actually sought Ben out since they’d met and, despite how clearly annoyed Armitage was, Ben couldn’t help but be pleased. Aside from hoping that Armitage would be his boyfriend someday, Ben was hoping that Armitage would be his friend soon. Now, even. 

Although Ben had intended to strike out alone when he first ran away, he’d gotten attached to the idea of having a partner practically the second he’d realized he wasn’t alone on the ship. Because who wanted to be alone, really? Ben had thought he had at Uncle Luke’s school. Before he had learnt to block out other people’s emotions he could sense fear and jealousy simmering under the surface of all his interactions with the other padawans. Armitage might not like Ben, but he certainly wasn’t afraid of him. And he seemed like he was probably really smart. And he had really cute freckles –

“Ben, I’m serious! Where are we going and what are we going to do once we get there?”

“Er…”

“You really have no plan, do you?”

“I do to!” Ben shot a glare of his own back at Armitage, who was regarding him with incredulity. 

“You don’t. This whole thing is just a cry for help. You say you want to be an outlaw, but you really want your mother or father to find you and take you home. You’ll no doubt get an apology for whatever perceived slight made you run, and you’ll have more attention for a while. They may even throw in a pony for good measure.” 

“That’s not true!” Ben found himself actually getting angry with Armitage. He was talking like Ben was some kind of spoiled brat. “We haven’t gone anywhere yet because I’m being careful they don’t find me!”

“We’re going to run out of rations soon; father’s errand was only supposed to take two days. We need to get to a planet.”

“You were on an errand with your dad?” Ben felt rather dense as it struck him for the first time that Armitage was probably saying goodbye to more than just an evil wannabe-empire by staying with Ben. He must have a family and friends in the First Order. 

“Well, yes.” Armitage initially seemed puzzled by Ben’s change of tone, but it quickly melted into amusement. “What, are you feeling guilty about my imprisonment now? Don’t worry, my relationship with my father has always been more business than anything else.” 

That was…sad. But Armitage didn’t even seem to think it was strange. Ben couldn’t claim to have a great relationship with his own father – he barely ever got to see either of his parents, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t hold that against them – but it certainly wasn’t anything as cold as ‘business’. Whatever else Han Solo felt for his son – frustration over not knowing how to raise him, or even the fear that the voice claimed kept them apart – Ben knew that he was loved. The voice was able to make him doubt that sometimes, in his darker moods, but so long as his mind was clear he was certain of it. 

“Do you even like him?” Ben asked hesitantly, half thinking that Armitage was about to snap and tell him that of course he loved his father. He didn’t.

“Not at all. I quite hate him, actually.” Armitage laughed without humor. “But his name carries weight in the Order, so I’m glad to have it.”

“I’m sorry.” Ben wasn’t sure what else he was supposed to say. Armitage’s life sounded so cold and he wished he could change that. 

Actually, he could change that. He had already been planning on changing that. 

Ben grinned. “Hey, but now you have two reasons to run away with me! The brainwashing, and getting away from your dad.”

“I am not br – never mind.” Armitage was looking at him now like he was an idiot, but Ben let it go since he was probably raised to think all awesome ideas were stupid. He’d learn. 

“We’re getting off topic.” Armitage crossed his arms and leaned on the door frame. “We need to start moving, Ben.”

“Yeah, I know.” Ben sighed. His initial plan had been to move around frequently to make himself harder to track, but he had realized pretty quickly that all the places he knew to hide – places frequented by underbelly types – were places he knew through his dad. He might be looking for him in places like that.

Armitage was right, though, they needed to get started. They were running low on food, soon they’d be running low on fuel, and they needed money for both. 

“Ok, how about Ba’al 6?” Ben said uncertainly, even as he started flicking switches on the dash to prepare for their trip. Ba’al 6 was a small moon ruled by a crime boss who Han Solo had burnt pretty badly when Ben was little. Han’s epic escape from Ba’al 6 was one of his favorite stories as a kid. 

Going there could be really dangerous, but they could get there in about 4 hours and Han probably wouldn’t go there looking for him. 

“You don’t sound very certain about that choice.” Armitage came over to sit in the co-pilot’s seat, which made Ben smile a bit because that was exactly where he wanted him.

“Eh, it’ll probably be fine. Hey, do you know how to fly?”

“Of course. I’ve flown all the required simulations for my age group at the academy.”

Now it was Ben’s turn to look at Armitage like he was an idiot. 

“You don’t know how to fly.”

“A well-made simulation is the same as being in space.”

“No.”

“You can program in practically any variation in conditions.” 

“No.”

“I assure you you can.” Armitage huffed defensively and Ben decided to take pity on him. 

“Alright, well, how about we just brush up on a couple things, then?”

“Do not patronize me Ben, you are not teaching me how to fly. I know how to fly.” 

“Of course you do. So, to start out –“ Ben launched into his lesson as they entered hyperspace, and was gratified when Armitage actually seemed to be listening.

-

Ben’s flying lesson had been more interesting than Armitage had any intention of admitting. Once he was satisfied that Armitage did understand the basics he had started describing scenarios that really were not accounted for in the academy’s simulations. He would have to see what he could do about getting them updated when he got back. 

He realized as Ben talked, though, that he probably wouldn’t be able to fly like him no matter what simulations he practiced with – or what real flying practice he got in, for that matter. Ben tried to give concrete instructions, but it was clear that flying was largely instinctual for him. It was fascinating. Were Armitage more foolish he might have hoped they’d be caught up in a meteor storm so he could really see Ben in action. 

Once they had landed on Ba’al 6 they had had to do something about their respective wardrobes. Ben was wearing cream-colored robes that made him look very much like a jedi out of an old story and while Armitage’s school uniform should not have been well known outside of the Order, Ben was fairly insistent that it would make it impossible for him to fit in. They had each kept their respective pants and shoes for the time being (Ben said they were going to have to do something about Armitage’s dress shoes and wrinkle-proof slacks in the future), but Ben had shed his outer robes in favor of the long sleeved linen shirt he wore underneath and retied his belt around only that. He had tried to convince Armitage to simply shed his jacket, but Armitage was far too aware of how scrawny he looked in only his sleeveless black undershirt and refused to comply. Ben had ended up shredding his own robes so that Armitage could wear them open as a jacket without them looking unreasonably long (they still looked unreasonably baggy, though). 

Ben had also taken the liberty of messing up Armitage’s hair, which he had kept tidily slicked back with pomade all week. His look of irritation was met with a laugh and a “Hey, I just destroyed my robes for you!”. 

Armitage added clothing to the end his mental list of things they needed to buy once they had money, after food, fuel, and weapons. Not that he was going to be around long enough for it to matter. All he needed was for Ben to leave him alone for a couple minutes so he could find a holonet connection. Transport 4 was made to be holonet-capable, but the feature had been destroyed to make it harder to track. 

Ben was not leaving him alone, though. He was practically glued to his side as they moved through the small, but bustling, city. He didn’t seem to be watching Armitage like he was worried about him escaping, though, it was more…protective. None of Ba’al 6’s lowlife denizen’s even seemed to give them second looks, but Ben was on edge like they might be attacked at any second. Armitage wasn’t at ease either – nothing had even touched him and he already felt like he needed a shower – but it seemed almost like Ben expected something to go wrong.

“What aren’t you telling me?” 

“Nothing.”

“You’re a horrible liar.”

“There might sort of be a price on my dad’s head here.” Ben leaned close to whisper to him.

“Then why did you want to come here!” Armitage hissed back. 

“It was the only place I could think of where we might find a job without my dad hearing about it!”

Armitage stopped walking to stare at him, baffled by poor his planning skills were. 

“Listen, it’s only a problem if someone figures out who my dad is, so we should just stop talking about it.”

They continued onwards and arrived at a bar called ‘Jojo’s’ just as Armitage was about to call Ben on not actually knowing where he was leading them. The establishment had a fairly sizable crowd for it being the middle of the day, and it was clean and decorated in a modern manner on the inside (on the outside it looked like a dump). 

“What do we do now?” On the street nobody had seemed interested in them, but several sets of suspicious eyes had found them the second they stepped into the bar. Armitage was fairly sure it wasn’t because they were underage. 

-

Armitage seemed nervous, not that Ben could blame him. On the street it had been Ben keeping close to the red head, but as they made their way across the room to the bar it was Armitage walking closer to Ben than he really had any excuse to. Not that Ben minded. That, combined with his actually asking what they were supposed to do now, made Ben feel like the pressure was on him to make this work. He needed to be the cool outlaw he wanted Armitage to see him as and get them a job. 

“We’re looking for Jojo.” Ben told the bartender. To his ears his voice had sounded much more confident than he felt, and he was pretty sure he was pulling off a casual stance. Armitage, in response, seemed to remember to erase any visible signs of his own nerves. 

“Oh yeah, kiddo? And why do you think Jojo’ll want to see you?”

“We’re here to do a job for him.”

“What job?”

“Uh –“

“That’s between us and ‘Jojo’.” Armitage spoke up, saving Ben from whatever words were about to tumble out of his mouth. He seemed to really not like the name ‘Jojo’. “You would be wise to point us in his direction, now.” 

Armitage was really good at bluffing. 

“Well if it isn’t Han’s boy! Ben, right?” An affable voice sounded from the entrance. Dread flooded Ben’s system as he turned to see a tall, broad, man in an expensive looking suit. His clothing was at odds with his person, which bore numerous scars and had a leathery quality that spoke of years working in the sunlight. His unruly hair was brown with dashes of grey and the whites of his eyes were more of a milky yellow colour. His irises were an unnatural shade of green. 

Jos ‘Jojo’ Jordania, one of the many gangster’s Han Solo had screwed over financially in his long career. 

Jojo walked to a plush chair by a fireplace on the far end of the room and gestured for two goons that had come in with him to herd Ben and Armitage in that same direction. 

“How did you know –“

“One of my grandmothers was half Kritaxi. They can smell all kinds of things on a person. Didn’t your dad tell you about that?” Han had actually said that Jojo was a psychic crocodile, but Ben had thought that was just to make the story more fun for him as a child. Turns out it was a massive exaggeration, but not an outright lie. The Kritaxi were reptilian, anyways. How could they have babies with humans? 

It probably wasn’t the time to be thinking about that.

“Not exactly. So –“

“So why are you and the little redhead not dead for setting foot inside my bar on my moon? Considering how much money I lost because of your dad. It’d be a pretty good way to get back at him, don’t you think?” Jojo was still talking like they were old friends he was happy to see. “And sit down, would you? You’re making me feel like a bad host.” 

Ben looked to Armitage to see him looking back. If he was still scared or nervous it was impossible to tell, but Ben was willing to bet he still was and tried to smile reassuringly before they both sat down in chairs facing Jojo.

“I know what happened between you and my dad, what he did, I mean. But I’m hoping you’ll hear us out anyways. We’re looking for work.” 

“Well that’s interesting. What kind of work?”

“Transport, or retrieval. Anything that pays, really.”

“Oh, Benny, you do not mean that.” Jojo laughed and shook his head. “So, are you any good at ‘transport or retrieval’?”

“My dad taught me everything he knows.”

“Like how to back out of lucrative deals?”

Any confidence Ben had been gaining evaporated instantly. 

“Oh relax Ben, I’m just playing with you. I’m willing to consider throwing some work your way. Know why?”

Ben really didn’t. Why was this the best idea he could come up with?

“First, because you’re clearly new to the game I won’t have to pay you top dollar. More importantly, though…” Jojo laughed again. “I can smell your desperation. There’s a reason you’re going to an enemy of Han’s for a job instead of a friend of his – he has plenty of both. I can’t tell what that reason is, but I think it’d keep you in line.”

“So you’re actually going to give us a job?” Armitage seemed surprised.

“Maybe, Red, maybe. I’m considering it. I’m also considering gutting you both and making sure word gets back to your friend’s dad. Or using him to lure Han here…. I’ve got a lot of options.” 

Ben was about to start yelling about how Armitage had nothing to do with Jojo’s issue with the Solo family, but Armitage spoke again before he could.

“I see your dilemma. How will you ever decide?” Armitage snarked calmly, which seemed to please Jojo. Maybe Ben should just let him do the talking in the future.

“I’m thinking of some kind of test. That sounds fair, right? I’ll give you boys a little job and, if you do it to my satisfaction, I might have more work for you.”

“And if we can’t?”

“Heh, come on kid, we just went over that. So, what do you say?” Jojo held out his hand for Ben to shake. He didn’t really see how he had much of a choice now, so he shook it. 

The test Jojo set out for them was fairly simple. There’d been a card shark scamming people in the bar for the last couple nights, which was not a problem in itself since he’d asked Jojo’s permission first. A local man with a bit of a gambling problem had stolen a bottle of very rare, very expensive, scotch from behind the bar and lost it to the card shark, though. Jojo couldn’t have people stealing from him, even if it was just a bottle of liquor, and had already seen that the gambler learnt that lesson. What he needed Ben and Armitage to do was get the bottle back from the card shark before he left the planet, which he was planning to do fairly soon.

They would need to run if they were going to catch him, so they started running. Jojo’s laughter echoed behind them as they sped off.

-

Armitage was never going to forgive Ben if they got murdered on some foul-smelling, obnoxiously arid, excuse for a moon. He was never going to forgive him because he would not be alive to do so. They might actually die today, and that was not something Armitage had been prepared to face when he insisted they move from where they’d bee absently floating through space. 

…It wasn’t really something he had to face, though. While he was telling the story about the gambler, Jojo had slapped a tracking bracelet around Ben’s wrist and promised he wouldn’t like what happened if he tried to leave the planet. He had not placed a second tracker on Armitage. 

Their pursuit of the card shark had taken them to the same field where Transport 4 was parked. 

Armitage just had to wait until Ben was distracted, get to the ship, and make his escape.

“That looks like the guy he described, right?” Ben was pointing at a stout man standing on the ramp of a small shuttle. 

“It does. You distract him, I’ll sneak onto his ship and find the bottle.” 

“Right.” Ben didn’t even question his plan, he just jogged over and started distracting the card shark. 

Armitage realized he could see Transport 4 from where he was standing and started walking towards it, sneaking around behind some other ships as if he was actually trying to get onto the card shark’s ship. This was perfect. He’d get away, and Ben might even get that bottle alone somehow. Once he realized Armitage had ditched him he might use the force to make the card shark hand it over or something…although, if he could do that, Armitage didn’t think he’d be letting him risk sneaking onboard. He seemed to like him. Which was a strange feeling; nobody liked him. His peers respected him, but they did not like him. Ben wanted to be his friend, though. It even seemed like he might want to be more than friends. 

And now he was going to die. He wasn’t going to get the bottle by himself because he wouldn’t realize Armitage had betrayed him until it was too late. Then, Jojo would kill him. Or use him to lure in his father and kill them both. He was never going to come up with another stupid plan, or fly another ship like the knowledge was imprinted on his DNA. He was never going to tease Armitage again, or make him smile like he’d said he would they day they met…

Armitage was on the card shark’s ship before he was fully conscious of having changed his mind. He found the bottle quickly (it was just sitting out; the card shark hadn’t realized he’d need to hide it) and showed it to Ben over the man’s shoulder as he made his way off the ship. Together, they delivered it to Jojo and received a very small sum of money – enough to buy dinner – and a promise of a job in the next few days if they’d wait for something to come up. 

When they returned to Transport 4 that night Ben was smiling from ear to ear and tossing around potential ship names. Armitage was shooting them all down and trying not to catch any of Ben’s infectious cheer, because there was really nothing to be smiling about. They had earned themselves employment from someone they couldn’t trust, and Armitage had missed a perfectly good opportunity to escape (he didn’t want to think about why, so he didn’t). 

He was still going to escape. He was not running away from the Order. He wasn’t participating in this nonsense, not really. 

Still, when Ben finally rolled his eyes and asked what he thought they should name the ship…

“Breakaway Delta? ‘Delta’ as homage to the ‘4’.”

“That’s great! She can be ‘Delta’ to us, and ‘The Breakaway’ to everyone else! You like the sound of that, Delta?” Ben actually petted the dashboard.

“You’re ridiculous.” 

“And you’re learning.” Ben smirked at him. “Breakaway Delta actually sounds cool, like freedom. By the time I’m done with you you’ll be a proper rebel.”

Armitage shot Ben his best glare for even daring to joke about him becoming any kind of rebel. “And when are you going to be done with me?”

“Never.” Ben shot him a rather unsubtle wink.

Armitage did not blush. Much.

**Author's Note:**

> This series actually has an outline now. But it's not going to stop being silly.


End file.
